Reflect
by SPARIA89
Summary: While Walter and Sheldon argue, Peter and Leonard bond as the unappreciated sidekicks


Peter entered the diner to tell Walter that Olivia was almost finished getting the evidence shipped to the lab and that they wouldn't have to spend the night in Pasadena after all.

Walter, seated at a booth, was gesticulating wildly and disagreeing loudly with the tall slender man seated opposite him. Peter headed over, determined to stop the argument before it came violent and someone ended up covered in the milkshake that sat at Walter's elbow.

"Walter!"

"Not now," his father said irritably. "I am explaining a fundamental principle to this idiot!"

"Idiot?" the man shrieked. "I, sir, am a theoretical physicist who has two Ph.D.s, and an IQ of 187!"

Walter snorted. "Pah! Theoretical! What is the point of thinking and never doing? And where is my half a sandwich and soup?!"

"Oh dear God."

This last exclamation came from a man, much smaller than Peter, who was hovering nervously at the edge of the booth. He was wearing glasses and an anorak and Peter automatically dropped him into the category of both "nerd" and "could be more dangerous than he looks".

At Peter's inquiring glance, the man pushed his glasses further onto his nose. "Sheldon maintains there's no such thing as a half a sandwich. It's just a small sandwich. He's very particular about…well, everything." He nodded to the seat. "That's Sheldon's favourite spot and he wouldn't sit anywhere else, even though this gentleman was already seated."

Peter sighed. "That's no gentleman, that's my father. I'm Peter, by the way."

"Leonard."

Peter looked the other man over again. "What's your relationship with, er, Sheldon?"

"We're colleagues and we share an apartment," Leonard explained.

"He really a genius?"

Leonard nodded. "I'm afraid so."

"Unfortunately, so is Walter."

By now Sheldon had upended the salt cellar and was moving the grains about the tabletop, lecturing loudly. Walter had crossed his arms and was watching with a look of amusement; Peter knew he was going to interject soon, probably with a theory that would upset most reasonable men of science, let alone the apparently eccentric Sheldon.

"You a genius too?" Peter asked.

Leonard shrugged his shoulders. "My mother doesn't think so, but my teachers generally did. I'm an experimental physicist; my IQ is only 173."

"And Sheldon never lets you forget it, right?" Peter asked, with sudden insight.

"Well, he does sometimes mock my work," Leonard said hesitantly. He frowned as Walter swept a hand through the carefully laid out salt piles, eliciting a gasp from Sheldon.

"Waitress, more salt, please," Walter bellowed, adding, to Sheldon, "Then _I_will show _you_!"

Peter looked longingly at a quiet table far away in the corner. Since it seemed that the debate was going to stay in the realms of shouting and name-calling, he felt safe leaving Walter to battle his intellect against Sheldon's. Feeling a comradeship with the overlooked Leonard, he nodded to the other man.

"Want to go sit over there and get pie?"

Leonard beamed. "I'd love to."

Peter sipped at his coffee. "And he's never embarrassed, really – not about anything a normal person would be. Even though you might be embarrassed for them. Or by them. Not that there's any point trying to change him; it's in his nature."

"Yes," Leonard agreed emphatically. "That's exactly it. He needs me, though he doesn't want to admit it. The world…he understands how the world works, but not how it _functions_."

Peter nodded. "Just be grateful he isn't keeping cattle in the lab, mixing up his own pharmaceuticals, or sticking electrodes on your head."

Leonard, stopped, a piece of pastry dangling on his fork. "Sometimes there's electrodes."

"No kidding." Peter smiled. "Maybe we should start a support group."

An hour later, when Olivia showed up, Walter and Sheldon had settled down, still disagreeing with each other, but at least listening to what the other had to say. Peter introduced Olivia to Leonard, who looked suitably impressed by the blonde FBI agent.

"That," Walter had said happily on the ride home, after swapping email addresses with Sheldon, "was a lot like my discussions with Belli."

"Obviously the man is insane," Sheldon had concluded on the way home with Leonard, "but not without some remarkable insight."

For their parts, Peter and Leonard had both just nodded politely.


End file.
